Sometimes, when working in the archives you accidently stumble upon a document that ends up being so interesting, that it distracts you from what you are supposed to be doing and you have to read it there and then!
That’s what happened when we found the document D-FFO/18/132 within the Ffooks and Darlington of Sherborne, Solicitors collection. Amongst the cash books, correspondence and sales particulars we found a gripping story of a potential double poisoning in Powerstock.
D-FFO/18/132 is a large bundle of documents titled ‘John Hounsell of Powerstock. Papers in dispute Regina V Hounsell (murder) 1839.’ It contains copies of documents from the trial of John Hounsell who was accused of being ‘moved and seduced by the instigations of the Devil’ to poison his wife, Mary Hounsell.
Within this bundle is a copy of the case for the prosecution, which contains a very detailed account of the circumstances behind this trial. It tells the story of how John Hounsell ended up accused of the wilful murder of his wife Mary Hounsell in March 1839…
The story starts on the 4th November 1838, when John’s wife of 12 years, Mary Hounsell, was taken ill with stomach pains at home in Powerstock. Mary soon died on the 13th November and was buried on the 20th November. It was assumed that natural causes had led to her death.
No one thought too much of Mary’s death, but at the same time, Elizabeth Gale (who had been attending Mary through her illness), was suddenly taken extremely ill, with symptoms similar to Mary. After some investigation by Elizabeth, she found out from a doctor that her illness was caused by accidently coming into contact with arsenic which had escaped from a parcel she had picked up from Bridport for John Hounsell a few days before.
However, further suspicion did not arise until early 1839, when Elizabeth Gale’s husband died very suddenly in January. Rather hastily afterwards, John proposed to marry Elizabeth, and within a month the Banns of Marriage were published.
This, in connection with the circumstances of Mary Hounsell’s death, caused suspicion in the minds of his neighbours, who suspected that John may have poisoned his own wife and Elizabeth Gale’s husband so that he would be free to marry Elizabeth. It was decided to contact one of the County Coroners, Mr Frampton, who directed both of the bodies to be exhumed and examined.
Several medical men tested the contents of the stomachs and were unanimously of the opinion that Mary Hounsell had died from taking arsenic. However, they were unable to tell whether Gale had also died due to the same cause. To know for sure, parts of the intestines of both were sent to Mr Herapath, a celebrated Chemist in Bristol. He confirmed the opinion of the medical men of Bridport.
After a 14-day inquest, the Coroner placed a verdict of wilful murder against John Hounsell who was accordingly committed under the Coroners Warrant.
However, despite the medical evidence and a number of witness statements, at trial, John Hounsell was acquitted and found not guilty. This may be due to the fact that within the case for the Prosecution document it states that
‘The Evidence which can be brought in support of the charge is entirely circumstantial and will leave a great deal to be inferred by the Jury before they find the Prisoner Guilty. The Principal witnesses have a strong bias in favour of the Prisoner from being either related to him of his neighbours and friends’
It was ultimately decided that it was possible that Mary Hounsell could have taken the arsenic herself to end her suffering quickly and speed up her death.
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After reading the details of this case, we thought we would look further into John Hounsell, and discovered that this murder case was not the first or last run-in he had with the law.
The Dorchester Prison Admissions and Discharge registers tell us that John was often in trouble, the earliest being in 1827 shortly after his marriage to Mary when he was imprisoned for 3 months for poaching.
These prison registers are interesting as they also provide us with details about John’s appearance that were not included in within the trial documents. We learn from them that he was 5.4 ½ feet tall, had grey eyes, flaxen hair, a fair complexion, and had a wart and large cut on his hand.
Even after being accused of murder in 1839 John still went on to night poach and shoot at the keepers in 1841, and then to trespass and steal from a garden in 1843. It seems for John, trouble was never too far away!
The story of John, Mary and Elizabeth shows that it is always interesting to see where one document or bundle of papers can lead you when doing your research! Have you found any interesting tales like that of John in your own research? Let us know in the comments below!
This is fascinating. I’m very interested to know the dates of the people involved in this .. I am researching my husband’s tree and there are Hounsells and Gales from Dorset. Thank you
Hey these people are actually my family I’ve found a lot about witches too